Open High School of Utah

From Researching Virtual Initiatives in Education

The Open High School of Utah (OHSU) is based in the US state of Utah. Founded in 2009, it is a public charter school which aims to provide Utah students with an online, virtual environment to fulfill their "full academic and social potential". Courses are fully online.

In 2011 OHSU offered education for 500 full-time high school students in grades 9-11, and planned to add grade 12 in 2012.

OHSU offers a full college preparatory programme and the opportunity for students to earn both a high school diploma and an associate's degree from Utah State University. It is estimated that 39% of existing students' "needs [were] not being met in previous school situations".

The Open High School of Utah has been supported in part by a grant from the US Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIPSE).

The Open High School of Utah web site is at http://openhighschool.org

More details

Founded by OER evangelist David Wiley, OHSU is committed to using open educational resources (OER); the entire curriculum is based on open educational resources, enhanced with screencasts, interactive components and other activities.

As this is a Utah public school, any 9th grade high school student (13 to 15 years of age) in the state of Utah can apply. Enrolled OHSU students can take advantage of the OHSU partnership with Utah-based Brigham Young University Independent Study (in the Utah Higher Education Consortium) to take BYU independent courses at no cost.

All OHSU students are issued/provided a laptop and an internet connection subsidy, along with CDs/DVDs and other instructional supplies. Learning is self-paced, in collaboration with teachers. OHSU utilizes both synchronous and asynchronous types of communication. For each course, students have the opportunity for synchronous instruction with their teacher (daily). For more details see http://openhighschool.org/teaching-model

References

• "A National Primer on K-12 Online Learning", iNACOL, October 2010, http://www.inacol.org/research/docs/national_report.pdf
• "Keeping Pace With Online Learning: An Annual Review of Policy and Practice", Evergreen Education Group, 2010, http://kpk12.com/reports/
• Open High School of Utah web site, http://openhighschool.org

The charter proposal is at http://openhighschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/OHSU-Charter-as-Amended-Apr09.pdf

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